TPS Hunter Valley golf event goes ahead while Golf NSW postpones Senior Amateur Championships

The TPS Hunter Valley event - the first appearance of a major tour golf event in the Hunter in more than 10 years - was scheduled to start on Thursday 10th March at Oaks Cypress Lakes Golf and Country Club, however the event has been pushed back to Friday 11th March to allow the course superintendent and his staff more time to prepare the playing surfaces impacted by heavy rainfall.

Meanwhile, due to the wild weather conditions buffeting the State’s east coast, Golf NSW has postponed the NSW Senior Amateur Championships scheduled at Forster and Tuncurry Golf Clubs on the Mid North Coast.

The TPS Hunter Valley event is a mixed-gender golg event with a $200,000 prize pool, part of the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia and the WPGA Tour of Australasia.

The event is now  going ahead as a three-round event with Nick Dastey, the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia's Tournaments Director noting "It's remarkable to think that we can consider playing at all. Full credit to Oaks Cypress Lakes for the work that they've already done in trying circumstances, with plenty of work ahead in the next 48 hours as well. Our rules and event operations team are unbelievably experienced in navigating through these challenges which always gives us the best chances of completing a successful event.

"We are extremely confident we will have the tournament up and running from Friday morning, and have no doubt it will be a stand-out event in a great part of the world. The forecast weather from Friday to Sunday is positive so we look forward to good crowds onsite and great pictures being beamed out through the weekend broadcast."

The tournament will now be reduced to 54 holes from 72 holes.

The TPS Junior Players Series will now be played as a one-round event on Sunday with the cut to the main tournament made at the completion of the second round on Saturday.

With $200,000 in prize money to be won and the top 13 players on the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit all in the field, PGA of Australia Tournaments Manager Graeme Scott said it was important to protect the integrity of the tournament.

“We will be closing the course on Wednesday to allow it to start to dry out and then players will be allowed to play practice rounds on Thursday ahead of Round 1 on Friday,” Scott explained.

“Given the nature of this golf course we thought it was important that the players were given the opportunity to play a practice round.

“We also need to give Course Superintendent Craig Molloy and his team the time to get onto the golf course and address the areas of the course that they haven’t been able to prepare in recent days.”

Meanwhile, Golf NSW has postponed the NSW Senior Amateur Championships scheduled to begin on Monday 7th March at Forster and Tuncurry Golf Clubs on the Mid North Coast.

With roads already cut across the State and over 280 players from New South Wales, South East Queensland and Victoria expected to play, Golf NSW officials made an insightful call as the predicted East Coast Low intensified dumping up to 200mm of rain in the past few days.

“We felt the right call was to postpone the tournament and not see anyone risk their personal safety by travelling at this time,” Golf NSW Events Manager Olivia Wilson said. “We strive to run our championships in the best conditions course-wise, and also felt there was no likelihood of this in these trying times.”

The tournament has now been rescheduled to early November with Golf NSW sending a full refund to players entered in this event.

Entries for the rescheduled tournament running from 8th to 11th November, will open in early August.

Image top: Oaks Cypress Lakes Golf and Country Club; image above courtesy Golf NSW